A character input device and a character input program for use in a mobile information terminal such as a cellular telephone adopt a predictive conversion method in order to simplify text input manipulation.
In the predictive conversion method, a plurality of conversion candidates are presented according to an inputted character string. When any one conversion candidate is selected from a plurality of presented conversion candidates, the inputted character string is then replaced by the selected conversion candidate, or the selected conversion candidate is added subsequent to the inputted character string.
The conversion candidates include those prepared beforehand in the initial state and those later added using a learning functionality.
In addition, there are a device and a method in which, when a specific character string is inputted, an associated function is invoked, and the invoked function is used to generate a conversion candidate (for example, see Patent Document 1).
For an input device that handles numerical characters, there is a device that automatically performs currency conversion (for example, sec Patent Document 2).